Are you tolerating mediocrity in your work force? Do employees
watch the clock and expend just enough energy to squeeze by?
Don't be so quick to say "Not in my business."
According to Dick Doughton, president of Southwest Performance
Group Inc., a Scottsdale, Arizona, training company, "Many
managers tolerate exactly this kind of mediocrity. I see it every
day." The reason? "Most managers just don't know they
can light a fire under their employees."

These days, businesses have no choice but to get the highest
commitment out of workers. In an ever more competitive marketplace,
only the leanest and toughest will thrive. The big leadership
challenge today is getting the most from each employee. If
you're not, the question is, What's holding them back?

"Many employees just aren't focused on their
jobs--they're on the payroll but are [mentally] on vacation
every day," explains Fred de Avila, president of Spectra
Learning Group, an Irvine, California-based employee development
and strategic consulting company. "It's called rustout
because it happens over time. Usually it's a slow erosion of
effectiveness and commitment." Put plainly, when an employee
is rusting out, his performance has sagged into mediocrity--or
worse.

Defining Moment

Is rustout just burnout with a new name? Not according to the
experts. "Burnout is when you're overused and exhausted;
rustout happens when your [potential] is underused and you
deteriorate," says Buchholz. Burnout is the biggest worry in
cutting-edge industries (computer software development, for
instance) because workers can only put in 80-hour weeks for so long
before effectiveness collapses. But while burnout gets the greater
share of attention, rustout may be the bigger threat: "Every
day I'm asked by bosses, `How do we get employees to take
initiative, to be more fully involved?' " says
Doughton.

But what exactly does rustout look like? An employee has rusted
out when he or she no longer contributes much beyond the minimum.
When a worker who was once a regular source of good suggestions no
longer speaks up, that's a sign of rustout. Ditto for a worker
who formerly volunteered for extra duties and was always ready to
pitch in during emergencies but now stays out of the action.

More concretely, de Avila says, the signs of rustout are the
four "dis"es--disengagement, disidentification,
disorientation and disenchantment. "The disengaged employee
has quit but stays on the payroll," de Avila explains.
"The disidentified employee feels he or she used to be
somebody but not anymore. The disoriented employee no longer knows
where he fits in--that's not uncommon when employee duties are
realigned and reorganized. The disenchanted worker doesn't feel
valued. He doesn't feel his talents are recognized."

Sound familiar? Look around your business, and odds are
you'll get a wake-up call. Look for employee enthusiasm levels,
and compare mental notes with the levels you used to see.

Curing Rustout

Firing rustout victims is rarely the wisest solution, in part
because every termination means new costs in hiring and training
replacement workers. Also because "if you see a number of
rustout victims, this is symptomatic of issues in your
organization," says Buchholz. Sure, the present batch of
underperformers can be swept out, but what good is that if the next
batch soon starts to rust out as well?

Don't think this can't happen: Rustout is becoming
epidemic because a chief underlying cause is an inability to cope
with the changes--in technology and global competition--in our
society. Businesses are setting a furious pace to stay ahead of the
competition, but this brisk race has frazzled at least some
employees.

Suddenly, people find they have fallen behind, and it seems
impossible to catch up in terms of skills. "They've come
to the point where they say `Why bother?' " says
Doughton.

"The changes have also robbed some workers of their sense
of purpose," adds Buchholz. "They no longer understand
how what they do fits into the business as a whole, and the result
is a drop-off in enthusiasm and commitment." The pace of
change isn't likely to slow down, making it all the more
critical to find ways to arrest employee rustout.

"The starting point is to talk about rustout with employees
who exhibit it," says Buchholz. This means sitting down with
each employee to review his or her performance and discuss why it
is suffering. The conversation won't always be pleasant; often,
employees will resist the "rustout" label. But Buchholz
urges managers to persist because a crucial step is to help
employees see that they are rusting out--and that they have the
ability to end it.

In fact, simply holding this conversation is curative:
"Employees need feedback about how they are doing. Many are
rusting out but don't know it because the boss isn't giving
them honest feedback," says de Avila.

Offer to help employees update their skills, urges Alyce Ann
Bergkamp, an adjunct assistant professor at Catholic University in
Washington, DC. A key to reactivating any worker is to give him or
her the means to elevate current skills--in computers,
communications, sales or whatever is most pertinent to the
employee's current and future job description. A small
investment in training can go far in halting rustout.

While you're at it, "spell out how their work
contributes to the business' strategic objectives. Communicate
to them how and where their roles make a difference in the
company's success," says Doughton. Face it: Employees
frightened about their place in tomorrow's company won't
contribute at peak levels today. Neither will workers who don't
recognize the importance of their jobs. It's management's
responsibility to clearly communicate so employees come to work
with enthusiasm.

As employees emerge from rustout, provide reinforcement by
recognizing their contributions, advises de Avila. Initial steps
will be baby steps--just as a rusty wheel begins to move only
slowly--but be ready to pour on encouragement. "That's
very important in letting employees see that they are valued,"
de Avila says.

It's not easy work. Bringing employees out of rustout takes
concentrated, prolonged attention to the individuals on your team.
But the payoff justifies the extra effort: "Help your
employees out of rustout, and they will be grateful, and you will
have a work force filled with high energy," says Doughton.
"That means a big competitive advantage."

Robert McGarvey writes on business, psychology and management
topics for several national publications. To reach him online with
your questions or ideas, log on to (http://members.aol.com/rjmcgarvey/).

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